Buying God of War 2 in Shanghai

by John Pasden

17 Mar 2007

I recently went to my local video game store and asked when God of War 2 was coming out (yeah, I’m a little excited about this game). They told me March 15th. Well, this past week at ChinesePod was really busy, working hard to implement all kinds of new features.

Yesterday (March 16th) after work, I met my wife for dinner. She asked about God of War 2. I had forgotten about it. We rushed over to a nearby video game store, and the conversation went something like this (keep in mind that the normal price in Shanghai is 5 RMB per PS2 game):

> Shop Owner: (not looking up from his game) Come back tomorrow and it’ll be 10. No, wait, 15.

> Me: Forget it.

Then my wife and I headed to our local video game store. We were afraid it would be closed, but it wasn’t. They had God of War 2, but the boss told me it wasn’t working on a lot of people’s PS2 machines. When I tried to pay, he insisted on giving it to me for free, because I had recently helped him out with something.

When I got home it took about 5 tries, but it worked.

Today John B informed me that that same shop is charging 15 RMB for the game.

So you think that price was just for you? I suspected that at first, which was why I didn’t buy the game at the first shop. But if my local shop was selling God of War 2 for a similar price, I was going to pay it, because then I could be sure it was the going price and not a game of “gauge the foreigner.”

I asked a Chinese friend of mine about this. He works in the tech industry and is an avid gamer. He says this kind of pricing is totally normal for a much-anticipated new release. He said that he himself once paid 150 RMB for a brand new, high-quality three-disc Final Fantasy release.

So yes, this is capitalism. I don’t think we make up a significant portion of the shop’s business.

Pirated games for consoles. Oh, I needed an excuse to buy an XBox or a PS3. Or perhaps both since the games are so cheap.

Actually, today I saw a store that had XBox demos running on a 50″ LCD with tower speakers cranking out the sound. Even my wife (A.K.A. The Demon Queen of More Work, Less Fun) said that it looked very cool.

GOW2 is awesome for sure. I spare my single-day weekend on it and it just more than worth it. I’m really thankful that I was born in this era that makes me possible to enjoy this franchies… LOL.

Ya, piracy is bad… and for most of the gamers in China, the price would be the biggest problem – a normal PS2 game will cost you like 50 to 80 meals in China – I bet you know the contrast already.

However myself, has been trying to support genuine games as much as I can. I just bought some PS2 the best titles from Japan, as well as acopy of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd – the PS2 titles may serve on my PS3, but the UMD will definitely stay in its box for the rest of its life – I felt that I really like this game and have to show my appreciation thru buying a copy. I would never use the UMD version cuz you know…. the PSP loads game so slowly that you would never want to experience.

Anyway, have a good time with Kratos, and look forward to the PSP version. I’m waiting for a HK version of GOW2 so I can load it on my PS3. Cya 😉

HAHA~~~WHY the guy want 20RMB?Because he paid 10RMB for these “COPY DISCS”.SO….he sells them at 20RMB.Usually,gameshop’s guys will say”OH~~THESE DISCS TRANSPORT BY PLANE!~~~SO….expensive.” DON’T BE SURPRISE MY FRIENDS~~
PS:SORRY…MY ENGLISH IS NOT WELL…….AND..PIRACY IS BAD~
PPS:SOMEONE WILL DOWNLOAD THE ISO FROM THE INTERNET (BY USING THE “BITCOMET”OR SOMGTHING)AND..DIY THE PS2 GAME DISC….

The “DVD-9” selling point. Recall the selling point of the inferior quality “thin discs” – priate dvd’s at about half thickness of normal dvd’s, likely rejects and the seller was touting them as superior technology. Regardless, the pirate price is better than the retail market price.

On the topic of economical media, the local Safeway grocery store in Walnut Creek, CA. just got a DVD vending machine kiosk that is totally automated. The DVDs are $1.50 to rent for 24 hours, .99 cents on Mondays, and first DVD is free promo ongoing now. I just picked up:

Out the door was $3.00! All it takes is a swipe of your credit card, the return is automated, just pop it back into the slot. No paper receipts, either. And you get just the movies you want without a commitment to membership monthly dues. Sooner or later with Netflix or Blockbuster, you will run out of the new releases and will have to dig into the archives.

God of War rules, but once I found out Guitar Hero 2 was coming to XBox 360, I sold my PS2. So I miss out on God of War 2. I’ll live. Sure wish my wife was as enthusiastic about video games as yours, John…my wife (a Chinese woman, herself) HATES that I play games and insists that I should be doing something productive with my time, instead. Bah…productive, schmroductive.